Ellen Burstyn won her only Academy Award in 1975 for her portrayal of a widowed 35-year-old lounge singer with a bratty adolescent son (Alfred Lutter), whose pursuit of broken dreams leads her to a waitressing job in an Arizona diner and into the arms of a divorced farmer (Kris Kristofferson), in Robert Getchell's Oscar-nominated original screenplay. Diane Ladd received her first Oscar nomination as a foul-mouthed fellow waitress, and Martin Scorsese, directing his first big-budget film, was nominated for a Palme d'Or at Cannes. Also cast in small roles are a young Jodie Foster and Ladd's daughter, Laura Dern.